Humans to Savages in Lord of the Flies

Summary: Provides a short discussion of the William Golding novel, The Lord OF the Flies. Considers how the boys turn to savages.

There are some symbols used in Lord of the Flies that represent the loss of innocence and the fall of civilization. One specific symbol is the stick sharpened at both ends. Furthermore this symbolizes that nothing is going to slip out of their grip and that they will kill anything that they don't particularly like at that time.

First the symbols in this book are obvious and conclusive. Therefore you can sometimes even tell what is going to happen in the future by paying attention to the symbols. Accordingly the stick reveals that they will go to any measure to ensure that they get what they want. Jack states that they need to hunt so he comes up with the idea to make a two-sided "spear"(pg 103) He tells everyone that the spear will be used to hold up the "gift" (pg 137) for the beast. Later they try to use this spear to kill Ralph. Nevertheless, this shows that first they just want food so they could survive and be rescued. They later got so carried way with power, and despite their upbringing, that they resorted to killing their own just to get their way.